PBGC Takes Over Rand McNally Pension Plan

The agency stepped in because the plan was unable to pay promised benefits and faced abandonment following the sale of substantially all of Rand McNally’s assets.

September 19, 2008

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is taking over the pension plan sponsored by Rand McNally & Co., the one-time famed mapmaker that has been in financial trouble for years.

Rand McNally, which was based in Skokie, Illinois, first filed for bankruptcy in early 2003 and emerged from it a few months later. But late last year, its assets, including the Rand McNally trade name, were sold to Patriarch Partners, a New York-based private investment firm, to satisfy obligations to secured creditors. The pension plan was not assumed in the transaction.

The PBGC stepped in because the plan was unable to pay promised benefits and faced abandonment following the sale of substantially all of Rand McNally’s assets.

According to the PBGC, the Rand McNally pension plan is 72 percent funded, with assets of $19 million and liabilities of $26.4 million. The PBGC expects to be liable for the entire $7.3 million shortfall.

Filed by Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.